There’s a lot more happening in your gut than you might think. Sure, our digestive system moves food through the body, extracting nutrients and eliminating waste. But there’s actually a significant portion of calories we ingest that don’t get absorbed and instead are used to feed our gut bacteria. This inner microbiome creates its own type of waste: metabolites that can be absorbed into the bloodstream and pumped throughout the rest of the body.

We’re finding some of these compounds can impact everything from obesity and diabetes to blood pressure and heart disease—it’s astounding to realize the far-reaching effects on whole-body health that all start within the gut.

Today’s guest on The Doctor’s Farmacy is here to explain that connection on a deeper level. Dr. Stanley Hazen is both the chair of the Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine at the Lerner Research Institute and section head of Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation at the Heart and Vascular Institute of the Cleveland Clinic. He’s published more than 400 peer-reviewed articles and has over 50 patents from his pioneering discoveries in atherosclerosis and inflammatory disease. Dr. Hazen made the seminal discovery linking microbial pathways to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease, which we talk much about in this fascinating episode.